Acrylic clock plates

[steve fornelius]

I thought the ability to see inside a clock would be helpful to clients and I decided to explore the process to replace the brass plates with acrylic.

[arutha]

That is a great idea, I think I would do another using a very dirty and worn movement so the customers can see the possible problems with their clock, make some of the pivot holes oval etc.
Paul.

[steve fornelius]

The first one I did was a Smith’s movement – broken mainspring in a barrel (left the cap off so you can see inside), and an escape wheel pivot that was put in off center so the wheel goes up and down. I like the idea of the worn pivot hole. I might put in an oversize bushing to simulate wear.

[willofiam]

Perfect I too had the same thoughts, just have not gotten to it yet. For clients I have certain loose items to show and let them handle that explain different problems (a dirty sticky mainspring, a plate with a worn pivot hole and a new one with a bushing, pallets with grooves, bent wheel, rough and smooth pivots, ect..ect..) and having a movement in a run stand on display also works well as a learning, explaining tool. Thank you for sharing what you have accomplished, I think it is great and I will be adding something similar, I think what I will end up doing is having a running example with the clear plates William

[Bob Tascione]

Welcome to the forum Steve!
Beautiful job and great idea.
I can see where it would come in handy for helping customers understand what’s going on inside their clocks.
That would actually be a cool wall clock the way it is with hands!
Thanks for posting it.

Bob

[ewinrow]

Really nice job and a good 💡 . If I were a customer of yours, that would convince me along with possible problem identifications. I have often wondered why no-one ever made a high temp high impact block for automobiles or stainless steel bodies and frames for cars/trucks? If people pay millions for Bentley’s and other high dollar vehicles, would one not be willing to pay thousands for an almost lifetime less expensive vehicle : Anyway, Uncle Sam would probably buy the patent rights, (CHEEP!!!) and use them exclusively for their use only. Ahhhh, 6 in one hand and half a dozen in the other. So who wins : Surly not the consumer Any who, keep posting so we all can enjoy, Ed.

ALL BE ADVISED: This was not posted in negativity or political reasons towards anyone’s Ideas/ inventions or patents nor or Government….. AIRBORNE!!!!! Ed.

[bernie weishapl]

That is a great idea and well done.

[steve fornelius]

You all have identified the reasons I wanted to do this. To show off the innards of the clock, to show what problems look like, to have a wall mounted clock, similar to the Howard Miller lucite clocks. I like those clocks, but the movements are certainly not showpieces because they’re just off the shelf, unpolished movements. I have several customers with these – with rods, 5 tube and 9 tube – and the only problem I can see is making a nice dial because I’d have to farm out the work. The dials are something like 18 or 20 inches. Just another project to do after I get done with my sprocket and chain clock.

Re: stainless steel car bodies – my Reserve time included several trips to the Philippines. They make some jeepneys out of stainless tread plate and leave them high polished. Interesting looking but not a fun to see as the Chevrolet engine driving an overhead belt system for their machine tools making copies of M-16s.

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